admin‘Super agent’ Scott Boras (71) and LA Dodgers president Andrew Friedman (47) had a close match. There was a heated war of words over outfielder Cody Bellinger (28, Chicago Cubs), who has Boras as his agent. After being released from the Dodgers, Bellinger succeeded in making a comeback with the Chicago Cubs this season.
Boras opened the gun. The American media LA Times recently reported that Boras expressed his displeasure with the Dodgers. It sounded like Bellinger was blaming the Dodgers for the worst 2021 and 2022 seasons of his career.
“Bellinger underwent shoulder surgery at the end of the 2020 season, which left him an average player,” Boras told the outlet. “This will impact his performance over the next two seasons.”
He continued, “Although his strength was not perfect due to the surgery, the Dodgers told Bellinger to play. Afterwards, Bellinger was unable to receive professional treatment for the surgical area due to COVID-19,” adding, “Bellinger had no strength in his shoulder at the time.” “If you don’t understand the impact of injuries, your OPS can’t suddenly drop from .900 to .500,” he said.
The LA Times reported, “So when Bellinger was released from the Dodgers and became a free agent, he said to Boras, ‘I want to go to the team that knows me best, or the team that can fully understand me.'” The media continued by saying, “Boras’ remarks toward the Dodgers are being evaluated as an attack on the team, not just the Dodgers organization but the entire sports world.”
Bellinger, who debuted in the big league with the Dodgers in 2017, hit 39 home runs in his first year and won Rookie of the Year honors. In 2019, he hit 47 home runs with an OPS of 1.035 and won National League MVP honors that year. However, after hitting 12-10-19 home runs in each of the three seasons starting in 2020, he was released from the Dodgers in November of last year and transferred to the Cubs in December.
This year, he is trying to regain his former reputation. As of the 8th (Korean time), he has played in 110 games this season and is recording a batting average of 0.320 (135 hits in 422 at-bats), 24 home runs, and 86 RBIs. He also has an OPS of 0.916, which is the combination of on-base percentage and slugging percentage. Local American media evaluated it as ‘a revival that is close to Bellinger’s past reputation, although it falls short of his career-high performance in 2019 while wearing a Dodgers uniform.’
Dodgers President Friedman gave a direct response to Boras’ remarks in an interview with the LA Times. “I don’t want to go down to his (Boras) level. I think it’s a very convenient thing to say. We are not at all surprised by his comments,” he said.메이저놀이터
Boras then appeared to take a step back in an interview with the American daily newspaper USA Today. Boras said, “There was no fault of the Dodgers for allowing Bellinger to play in 2021 when he had a poor season with a batting average of 0.165, 10 home runs and 94 strikeouts, and Bellinger also did not receive pressure from the club regarding his participation in the game.”
He continued, “The Dodgers did not force Bellinger to play. It is not their fault. But he is a good teammate, so he wanted to play as soon as possible even after the surgery. However, due to the shoulder surgery, his strength was clearly lacking.” He added. This is a much more gentle statement than in the previous interview with the LA Times.
The LA Times said, “President Friedman pointed out, ‘When Boras criticized the Dodgers, there was no mention of the Boras Sports Training Institute, which he runs,'” and “This institute, located in southern California, provides “In particular, it was advertised that it would be helpful to athletes undergoing rehabilitation to recover from injuries.”
Regarding this, Friedman said, “It was really interesting that Boras didn’t mention the role of the institute at all, but I’ll leave it at that.”